A Summer's Surprise
by LaughinConfusion
Summary: Tenten and Neji are happily married newlyweds, living in complete bliss. It's their first summer together, and Tenten has been a bit off... What's going on?


**Hi there peoples. Gosh, I haven't been on here in soooo freaking long. Well, I've been fairly active on dA, writing reader-inserts (which this mental site won't accept XP) and some other stuff. So go check me out on there (the link is on my profile) if you care to. I'm accepting requests if you would like to message me with a form (that is on my profile) filled out. **

**Okay, I was proud of this story at first, but I'm not so much anymore... Oh well. Think what you will, review if you care. At least go hunt up the artist that drew the picture I based this on (a small version of it is the cover photo I'm using). Her dA name is AkiisAwesome42. The link is on this story on my dA account. **

**I don't own the Naruto characters featured, but I do own the plot and the briefly mentioned character Chii. **

**The Naruto characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto (those poor souls). Now lawyers leave me alone. **

**Enjoy~! If you can... **

* * *

Whenever Neji wakes up with the feeling of something heavy lying across him, he can't help but smirk.

" . . . Mission-report writing day?" He doesn't even have to ask, he already knows the answer, but does anyway. The thing on top of him always hums the same reply.

"Mmm-hmm!"

He let his smirk soften into a content smile that few people other than the woman who caused it would recognize.

Tenten put the eraser of the pencil to her lips as she tried to recall all the important details of her most recent mission, a B-rank escort to the Land of Tea. Nowadays, she actually likes writing mission reports (as boring, long and incredibly tedious as they are) because they're about twenty percent less boring when she does them lying on her husband (actually, they were ten times more fun, but she wasn't about to go letting everyone know that particular secret). For one thing, he's pretty warm. For another, she doesn't have to get up and walk all the way over to the bookshelf for the dictionary if she forgets how to spell something.

"How many are you behind on?" He questioned as teasingly as she knows he can be.

Her head turned to the side to smile at him. "I'm actually all caught up right now..."

He looked at her out of the corner of his white eye. "How long do you intend to let that last?"

Her smile morphed into a pout as she turned her head away. As much as she hated to admit it, ever since she married Neji three months ago, she was much more likely to fall behind in her paperwork. Honestly though, who would rather be writing reports when they could be cuddling or kissing or... Ahem, doing other things with their godly looking husbands? She sure as heck couldn't think of anyone. Lately, whenever she would plan to take care of it on her rare days off, she tended to get sick in the earlier hours, which led to Neji forcing her to lay in bed and do nothing all day, regardless of her protests. No one could accuse him of not being caring.

"Keep talking like that Hyuuga and you won't be getting lucky again any time soon." She grumbled and went back to focusing on her report.

His smirk returned as he closed his eyes, just listening to the scratching of pencil against paper and his wife's breathing.

~•~•~

Tenten walked through the village at a leisurely pace, heading toward Yakiniku Q, where she had made plans to have lunch with the girls.

The scent of barbecue wafted out tantalizingly into the street and the kunoichi could feel her self-restraint thinning the closer she got, and by the time she was through the door she was ready to pounce on the nearest table and snatch up all the meat, cooked or otherwise.

"Tenten! Over here!" A familiar voice called, drawing Tenten's attention to a table by the front window, where she saw Ino, Sakura, Chii, Temari and Hinata. She hurried over and slid in next to Chii and across from Hinata, relieved at the sight of beef cutlets already on the grill.

"Hey Tenten, how are things going?" An eight month pregnant Sakura smiled from her place beside Hinata. The rosette had gotten married to Uchiha Sasuke ten months ago and just shy of their four month anniversary, discovered that she was ten weeks along with what they later found out to be a baby boy. Sasuke was over the moon about it, which made Neji happy because he could hold it against Sasuke that the man actually skipped down the main street of the village after finding out.

"Things are going great." The brunette replied, grabbing a set of chopsticks and making for the cut nearest her.

"Are you feeling all right? Neji-nii mentioned that you kept getting sick..." Hinata inquired with concern. The heiress maintained a close bond with Neji, and if he talked to anyone (besides Tenten), it was Hinata. The reverse was true as well, with the exception of her relationship with a certain ramen-loving blonde.

"Yeah, they've just been brief nauseous spells. Neji was just overreacting." She replied before taking a bite, nearly moaning at the taste.

Ino smirked. "Well you can't honestly tell me that you don't like being taken care of by that gorgeous hunk. If only Sai understood that the quickest way to please a woman is to pamper her..."

Tenten went in for another bite before responding. "Yeah... He's been really sweet. Even more than before we got married, and I had almost believed that he had reached his extent that one time he took care of me after I contracted that minor disease from our mission to Kiri." Her eyes became unfocused as she recalled the memory of the three weeks Neji had stopped by her apartment every day to check on her and tend to her needs.

Sakura smiled. "It sounds like he's good at taking care of people, or at least those that he cares for... That's a good quality for him to have when you two have kids."

Upon hearing the statement, Tenten nearly choked on the piece of meat that she was chewing on.

"You okay there?" Chii asked as she pat her on the back.

The most recently married woman nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

The blue eyed platinum blonde of the group smirked. "That was quite a reaction."

"It wasn't a reaction..." Tenten stated defiantly.

"Right, that was just a coincidentally timed cough..." Ino teased. "Seriously hun, the mention of kids is what makes you uncomfortable? I thought nothing embarrassed you, especially after you got back from your honeymoon and I asked you all those questions-"

"Ino, shut up." Temari finally spoke. "It's her private life."

Ino scowled. "But we're her best friends! Who else is she going to divulge all the dirty details to?"

"She'll tell us when she wants to, not when you want her to." The sandy blonde Suna kunoichi answered.

"That's beside the point. The point is that she stumbled when Forehead mentioned them-"

"We haven't talked about it, okay?" The statement from the subject of the conversation rendered the rest of them silent.

Hinata was the first one to speak. "You really haven't?"

Tenten nodded.

"...Do you want to?" Chii inquired cautiously.

"...Yeah, but he hasn't and it just hasn't ever been the right time for me to."

Silence accosted them all once again. Tenten stared at the grill, not really seeing it, when Sakura reached across the table and put a reassuring hand on top of hers. The weapons mistress looked up to see her pink haired friend's smiling face.

"You'll get there." The pregnant woman said optimistically.

Tenten gave a small smile back. "Thank you."

Each of the girls gave their own supportive smiles.

"Okay, sorry to cut the love fest short, but I want the dish on the two international relationships we've got going on." Ino grinned mischievously across the table at the Suna ambassador and the black haired girl beside her.

~.~.~

Two weeks had passed since the day she had caught up on her work and Tenten was very proud to say that she was yet to fall behind again, with no plans to do so. Much to her chagrin, she currently lacked the excuse that her delectable husband provided when he distracted her, because he was on a mission with Naruto, Kiba and Shikamaru, and had been for the last three days. However, she was relieved that he was gone today, an unexpected day off, so that when she spent ten minutes in the bathroom after an early morning attack of nausea, she was still free to go train. She was now at the training grounds of her former team (they hadn't been assigned a mission with the two green beasts in over a year, which forced her to sadly face the fact that Team Gai was no longer an official team), chipping away at the wood of the stumps and surrounding trees as her kunai, shuriken and various other weapons rained down from her scrolls as she spun through the air. She hit the ground when her technique was done, panting, ignoring a faint dizzy feeling that she was getting highly accustomed to.

"Tenten! The youthful flower of our team and Neji's life!" A high pitched and very familiar male voice called.

She turned around to see the younger version of her sensei, and longtime best friend. As annoying as he could be, she couldn't help but smile.

"Lee!" She grinned. The taijutsu expert ran up and threw his arms around her.

"How are you?" He yelled, a little louder than necessary.

"I'm doing great. What about you? We've hardly seen you since the wedding." The bowl cut boy had been Neji's best man, and Tenten was sure that she would never forget the image of the waterfall of joyful tears flowing down his face as he waited on Neji's side at the end of the aisle. Only his face had rivaled Gai-sensei's, who Tenten had asked to give her away. She had heard from Neji that Lee had been bowing before him after his request, and he was pretty sure the surrounding grass wouldn't have to worry about being watered again for a few weeks.

"I have been wonderful! I am thoroughly enjoying the springtime of my youth!"

She laughed. "That's good."

"How have things been, being married to my eternal rival?"

She chuckled. "They've been good. He's on a mission right now... Oddly enough it's the first time either of us have been away for more than a few days since the wedding."

"Hm. That is odd. Well, you know what they say, don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"I'm not. I've enjoyed every minute we've been together."

"That is good." He looked around at the surrounding shrubbery and vegetation, noticing that most of it had borne quite a bit of abuse from his friend's attack.

"Care to join me?" The woman invited. "I haven't had a spar session in forever because Neji would refuse for days whenever I'd get a little sick, and then I'd get sick again."

"You've been sick?" He asked in concern.

"Just little nauseous spells. No big deal. Seriously, I've been way worse."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Now come on."

He beamed. "Very well then. And if I cannot beat you, I will run five hundred laps around the village on my hands!"

The kunoichi shook her head at the strange forms of self punishment that he picked up from their teacher.

"All right, bring it on."

~.~.~

An hour later, the grounds were littered with shuriken, kunai and various other weapons. Tenten fell to her knees, panting heavily.

"Tenten, are you okay?" Lee inquired, squatting down in front of her.

"Y-yeah..." She got out between breaths. She could feel the sweat cascading down her face like a waterfall.

"You don't look okay. You've trained harder than this without breaking a sweat!" He pressed on in concern. "Your face is all red, your breathing is off. How do you really feel?"

"I-I'm fine Lee." She persisted, feeling another wave of nausea hit her. "Oh..."

"Tenten." Lee said, his tone serious. He pressed his hand to her forehead, finding her to be really clammy. "Be honest, how do you feel?"

"I..." She started. "I feel really tired all of a sudden..."

"You must go home and rest then."

"I can't... I've still got to go shopping..."

"I will do it for you. C'mon. Let's get you home."

Her answer was merely a sigh and a reluctant nod. He slipped an arm under one of hers and around her back and stood, pulling her up with him. He could tell that she was weak, and it worried him. She hadn't seemed that tired when he found her, and their spar really hadn't been that rough, so she shouldn't be this exhausted. He was tempted to take her to the hospital, but figured that she'd be okay after a good nap. He took a step and she did with him. He started out slow so that she could keep up, but eventually, like his sensei, he wasn't patient enough to keep to such a slow pace.

"Tenten, I'm just going to carry you, okay?" He asked politely, stopping before they even reached the main streets of the village. He looked over at her to see that her eyes were closed and her head was drooping. "Tenten?"

She didn't respond. He shook her a bit, and received no reaction, other than becoming a little heavier, as she leaned against him more. "Tenten!" Nothing. His original plan of getting her home to bed immediately changed. He picked her up and bolted for the hospital.

~.~.~

_"You're pregnant."_

Tenten laid on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, replaying what Tsunade had told her after her test results at the hospital had come back almost a week ago. She still couldn't believe that she was pregnant. Well... Thinking about how "busy" she and Neji had been, she kind of could, but they had used protection, except for that one time a month ago... But still! Even though it had been two weeks since her meeting with the girls, and the subject had weighed on her mind, she hadn't broached the topic of children with Neji. How would he react to this? Was he ready? Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the front door open.

_Joy..._ She thought.

"Tenten?" Her husband called out, back from his mission.

"I'm in the bedroom." She answered dully and relatively quietly, knowing he'd hear her. Now she'd have to explain herself, why she was sparring when she didn't feel well and all of that. He quickly came in and looked at her with slight concern, that few could detect.

"Did you get sick again?"

"I'm sorry, I jus-" She cut off, realizing what he had just said. Her eyebrows knit together as she sat up. "You mean you didn't hear? Lee didn't tell you?"

His concern became a little more obvious. "Lee? Why were you apologizing? What happened, Tenten?"

She sighed. "...I was sparring with Lee and I got really tired. He ended up having to help get me home, when I kind of... passed out. But-" She cut off at his suddenly highly obvious worried look. "Relax Neji, I'm fine... He took me to the hospital and they ran some tests."

"What were the results?" He questioned curtly.

"I told you, I'm fine, nothing was wrong..." She couldn't meet his eyes as she trailed off.

"What else? I don't need the Byakugan to see that there's something you're not telling me."

She sighed heavily. "...I'm pregnant."

Those two (or three) words rang throughout the silence that permeated the room. She couldn't meet his eyes. He wasn't seeing anything. Every passing second increased her anxiety until she was ready to rip her hair out. She looked up to find that her husband was no longer standing there. That was a shock. She knew that he might not be ready, heck, she wasn't sure that she was ready, but she would never think that Neji would run off like a coward. Her head fell forward into her hands, her eyes suddenly becoming moist.

"Tenten." His voice, along with the rustling of what sounded suspiciously like tissue paper and something else, announced his return. She didn't lift her head. "Hyuga Tenten, look at me."

That had the desired effect. He only called her that when he wanted her attention. She looked up to see him on his knees in front of her, with a bouquet of yellow carnations, courtesy of Yamanaka flowers.

"What?" Was all she could say. There was no way he could have run out to buy flowers and returned in that short amount of time.

"Lee came up to me as I was on my way here and shoved these at me. He wouldn't tell me anything. He just went skipping off, singing about a new springtime of youth approaching. It all makes sense now."

She laughed and shook her head. "He was there when I got my results and I made him swear not to tell you. I was thinking he would tell you I landed in the hospital to make you hurry home."

The Hyuga simply smiled. A smile that his wife was very proud to say she had seen quite often since she had married him. She put the flowers to the side and leaned forward to wrap her arms around his neck.

"You better keep up on your dodging practice. If I'm anything like Sakura was for the second trimester, you're going to need superhuman reflexes." She laughed and rested her forehead against his contently, finally feeling the joy that she had hoped would come with carrying his child.


End file.
